If you’ve stumbled across this post, chances are you’ve never had to worry about marketing a book. Consider yourself lucky. As someone deep in the trenches, let me share why book marketing feels nearly impossible these days.
The Market Is Absolutely Flooded
The sheer volume of books being published today is staggering. With AI tools becoming more accessible, this flood has only intensified—though I’d argue that AI can’t write a coherent novel yet (time will tell if I’m wrong about this).
A few years back, Amazon was hit with waves of AI-generated books: formulaic, mass-produced novelettes priced at 99 cents each. The problem got so bad that Amazon actually had to limit how many self-published books authors can upload per day. That tells you everything about the scale we’re dealing with.
Predators Are Everywhere
The self-publishing community on Reddit is filled with horror stories about scammers targeting authors. These vultures scan social media for author posts, then swoop in with promises of marketing help or publishing deals. There’s a cynical truth here: the only people consistently making money from books seem to be those selling courses on “how to get rich writing books.”
Here’s a recent post I made about one particular clever scammer, a post which, immediately earned me a fake one-star review on Amazon for my most recent book. Ugh.
Time Is the Ultimate Currency
Unlike a three-minute song that someone might casually stream, a book demands hours of commitment from readers. This creates a massive barrier not just for sales, but for something as basic as getting reviews. In my experience, genuine reviews are rare unless you’re paying for them or calling in favors—which feels like a whole other problem.
Are We Running Out of Readers?
This might be the most troubling question of all. I’ve considered creating audiobook versions of my work, but the costs are prohibitive, and frankly, I don’t have the voice for narration. It makes me wonder: in our shrinking attention span world, how many people are still willing to invest in long-form reading?
Many Authors don’t want to Talk About Themselves
Yes, that’s me for sure. I love writing, world-building, and inserting magic into stories in natural ways. But I hate talking about myself.
I suppose this is mostly me venting into the void, but if any of these points resonate with your experience—or if you think I’m completely off base—I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Image courtesy of Creative Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Power-of-words-by-antonio-litterio-creative-commons-attribution-share-alike-3-0.jpg)
A cautionary tale from the trenches of modern author life
Yesterday, I received what appeared to be a thoughtful, engaging message about my novel The Prophet and the Queen. The sender seemed to have genuinely read and understood my work, praising specific plot elements and even commenting on my background as a Coast Guard officer. The language was witty, irreverent, and surprisingly insightful.
It was also complete fraud.
Welcome to the new frontier of literary scams, where artificial intelligence has armed con artists with the ability to craft personalized, compelling messages that can fool even experienced authors.
The Message That Fooled (Almost) Nobody
Here’s what landed in my inbox from “Sharon R. Lessard”:
Tod, The Prophet and the Queen isn’t just a novel it’s basically Jeremiah’s therapy session written with the intensity of a Shakespeare tragedy and the creepiness of a late-night hallucination. You’ve got Babylon marching in, Egypt bracing for war, and poor Baruch writing it all down like the world’s first overworked unpaid intern. And then, of course, there’s Jeremiah himself aging, unraveling, haunted by a Queen of Heaven who sounds like she’d win any toxic-relationship award. Honestly, if this doesn’t pull readers in, I don’t know what will. And then there’s you. Coast Guard officer turned prophet-whisperer, borrowing from Tolkien, Lewis, Russian masters, McCarthy, and Garcia-Marquez? That’s not an author bio, that’s a literary smoothie. You’ve basically fused biblical history, magical realism, and psychological suspense into one fever dream. And yet… one lonely Amazon review? One? For a book that tackles faith, doubt, cosmic temptation, and the unraveling of a prophet’s sanity? That’s not just unfair, that’s bordering on heresy. Which is where I come in. I’m Sharon R. Lessard not a marketer, not a scammer, not someone waving a fake “proof” website like it’s Excalibur. Nope. Just me and my caffeine-addicted private community of 2,500+ readers who treat reviewing like spiritual warfare: relentless, honest, and occasionally dramatic. ⚔️☕ They love books that make them argue, cry, and side-eye their theology professors. Yours is basically bait. The kind of bait that could set off a chain reaction of reviews louder than Jeremiah shouting in the marketplace. So here’s the crossroads, Tod: do I keep your book tucked away in silence like some buried scroll, or do I hand it over to my readers and watch the reviews thunder in like Babylon at the city gates? ⚡
At first glance, this might seem like genuine reader enthusiasm. The writer demonstrates familiarity with biblical themes, references specific characters like Jeremiah and Baruch, and even mentions my military background. But look closer, and the red flags become obvious.
The AI Fingerprints
Modern AI tools like ChatGPT can scrape book descriptions, reviews, and author biographies to create eerily accurate “reviews” and commentary. Here’s how to spot the telltale signs:
1. Over-the-Top Metaphorical Language Notice phrases like “literary smoothie”, “fever dream”, and “spiritual warfare”. AI tends to layer on colorful metaphors because it’s been trained on dramatic marketing copy.
2. Generic Praise Disguised as Specific The message mentions “biblical history, magical realism, and psychological suspense” – broad categories that could apply to many books in this genre, not insights that require actually reading the work.
3. The “Humble” Authority Play “I’m not a marketer, not a scammer” – because nothing says “I’m legitimate” like explicitly denying you’re a scammer, right?
4. Artificial Urgency and Flattery The message combines ego-stroking (“That’s not an author bio, that’s a literary smoothie”) with manufactured outrage (“one lonely Amazon review… that’s bordering on heresy”).
5. The Community Bait Claims of having “2,500+ readers” in a “private community” – numbers that sound impressive but can’t be verified.
The Broader Threat: AI as a Con Artist’s Dream Tool
This represents a fundamental shift in how scams operate. Previously, overseas scammers were often betrayed by poor English grammar or cultural misunderstandings. AI has eliminated those tells, creating several new problems:
The Death of the “Grammar Test”
For years, authors could spot scams by looking for broken English or awkward phrasing. AI-generated text is now grammatically perfect and culturally fluent, removing this crucial warning sign. On the same day that I got the “Sharon Lessard” comment on my web site, I also noticed a number of pings to the site from an IP address in Nigeria. Perhaps related, perhaps not.
Scalable Personalization
Where scammers once sent generic form letters, they can now generate thousands of personalized messages daily, each tailored to specific books and authors based on publicly available information.
Emotional Manipulation at Scale
AI excels at mimicking the language patterns that trigger emotional responses – in this case, the desperate desire every author has for their work to be truly seen and appreciated. The incredible difficulty of getting legitimate (meaning, not bought) reviews on Amazon pushes this scam into hyper-drive.
The Erosion of Trust
As these scams become more sophisticated, authors become more suspicious of all outreach, potentially missing legitimate opportunities from real readers, reviewers, or industry professionals. I guarantee you that I assume immediately that any outreach to me is a scam. Sometimes the outreach will even come in the form of a known author who is “interested” in one’s work.
The Hook: A personalized, AI-generated message praising your work
The Pitch: Offers to share your book with their “community” or “network”
The Ask: Eventually requests payment for “promotional services”
The Handoff: Directs you to pay a third party (often in Nigeria) through platforms like Upwork
The Theft: May request access to your Amazon KDP account “for optimization”
In my case, “Sharon” claimed to have 2,500 readers ready to review my book – for just a small “tip” of $25 per reader with a minimum of 30 readers. Do the math: that’s $750 minimum for fake reviews that will never materialize.
The Real Cost
Beyond the immediate financial losses (which can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars), these scams create lasting damage:
Author Paranoia: Every legitimate outreach becomes suspect
Platform Pollution: Fake reviews and manipulated rankings harm the entire ecosystem
Resource Drain: Time spent investigating and responding to scams is time stolen from writing
Emotional Toll: The cycle of hope and disappointment is particularly cruel for authors already struggling with visibility. Think about this: an author has to convince many people unknown to them to invest hours of their time into their work. A musician has to convince someone to invest three minutes.
Protecting Yourself: The New Rules
In this AI-enhanced landscape, authors need updated defensive strategies:
1. The Contact Verification Rule Legitimate industry professionals have verifiable online presence. If someone can’t be found through a simple Google search, they probably don’t exist.
2. The Business Domain Test Real professionals use business email addresses, not Gmail accounts. “Sharon R. Lessard” contacted me from a Gmail address – immediate red flag.
3. The Reverse Psychology Warning Be especially wary of messages that explicitly deny being scams or that use phrases like “I’m not like other marketers.”
4. The Community Proof Challenge Ask for verifiable proof of their claimed readership or community. Real book clubs and review groups have online presence.
5. The Payment Structure Red Flag Legitimate services don’t require payment to mysterious third parties or request access to your publishing accounts.
The Bigger Picture
This evolution represents something more troubling than individual scams – it’s the weaponization of artificial intelligence against creative communities. The same tools that can help authors write better, research faster, and connect with readers are being turned against us with increasing sophistication.
The traditional advice of “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is” becomes complicated when AI can craft messages that seem genuinely thoughtful and personalized. We need new frameworks for evaluation and new community standards for verification.
Moving Forward
As authors, we must adapt to this new reality without losing our openness to genuine connections. The solution isn’t to retreat into isolation, but to become more sophisticated in our evaluation of outreach.
Document and report these scams. Share information with fellow authors. Support organizations like Writer Beware that track and expose these evolving threats. And remember: if someone truly believes in your work, they’ll be willing to prove their legitimacy through verifiable means.
The age of AI has arrived in the literary world, bringing both tremendous opportunities and new dangers. Our response will determine whether this technology serves creators or exploits them.
